


The Call

by AngelaCake



Category: Ghost Hunt
Genre: F/M, alcohol use
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-07-28 20:27:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16249196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelaCake/pseuds/AngelaCake
Summary: Naru receives a rude awakening at an ungodly hour by his far-too-inebriated assistant. Certain truths come to light in the fallout.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Idk, I really like the idea of Mai drunk-calling Naru because she's fed up with how he doesn't talk about his feelings. I could write a hundred fics about it.

Oliver Davis woke to a harsh ringing from his bedside table. He groaned and reached over for the offending item without lifting his head. After a moment of fumbling he managed to grasp it and bring it up to where he was buried under several pillows, finally lifting his head to look at the phone's screen. 

Mai Taniyama. Mai Taniyama was calling him at 3:47 am.

He scowled and swiped to accept the call. “What?” he growled, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

“Naru! Naru, I can’t believe you picked up, wow! You picked up your phone”

He didn’t dignify this with a response. Mai’s voice was entirely too loud for this time in the morning, and her words seemed slightly slurred. 

“Oh, um you probly wanna know why I called…”

She trailed off and Oliver glared at his pillows, hoping she would get to the point.

“I jus’ um, I need to know uh… how do you feel about me?”

“At this moment I’m considering firing you,” he said, deciding to be truthful.

“What?! Wh-why? I work so hard! I go on every case what the hell Naru!?”

Oliver winced and held the phone away from himself for a moment while she shouted at him, before bringing it back. “I see no reason to keep an employee who calls me drunk at four in the morning.”

He pictured Mai opening and closing her mouth and glaring at the phone as she was likely doing in the following silence.

“I don’t ever call you! I’ve worked for you for four years! No one else can put up with you that long, you arrogant jerk. You are so rude and such an ass and- you know what? I’m calling because you’re the one who’s terrible at talking to people and it’s been four years and I still don’t even know if you like me! Like even just a little let alone as a friend so really, what’s wrong with you? Why can’t you just talk to me like a normal person,you weirdo?”

“Well now I’m definitely considering firing you.”

“Oh fuck you, Naru.”

Mai hung up and Oliver held the phone in front of him, staring at it. Frankly, he should fire Mai for her behavior. He wouldn’t, though. He knew he wouldn’t. He’d have to come up with some excuse for why not before he saw her again on Monday.

Oliver tossed down his phone and returned to the comfort of the pillows once more. The excuse could wait. Right now, he just wanted more sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I didn't know exactly how Mai feels in this chapter...

Mai Taniyama opened her eyes slowly, the details of her dim and messy bedroom beginning to filter through her aching consciousness as she lifted her head. The air was stale and her mouth tasted like the floor of a bus station. She groaned and shut her eyes once more, burying her head in the sweat-soaked pillow. 

Gross. She felt gross.

Mai decided that facing her brutal hangover would still probably be better than staying wrapped in her nasty-smelling sheets and, sighing, tried to sit up. She rubbed her eyes and yawned before switching on the bedside lamp, only flinching a little at the brightness. She pulled on a sweatshirt and stood, trying to ignore the rushing in her head. She wasn’t sure if she felt hot or cold, but a sweatshirt was easier right now than a bra.

There was an empty mug next to her bed and Mai grabbed it to go make herself tea in the dorm common room. On the way, she pulled out her phone and unlocked it to check the time. Mai froze.

It wasn’t terribly late, just after 10am, but her phone had opened to the last screen she’d been looking at before passing out. Naru’s contact page. 

Mai bit her lip and, praying that her drunk-self hadn’t been a  _ complete  _ idiot, opened their last conversation. She had called him four times last night, starting at 3:47am. She had left three messages, two of them less than thirty seconds long. The last one was seven and a half minutes. And then there were the texts. Oh god, the texts.

The first one looked like it must have been a mistake, just a blurry shot of the top of Mai’s head and the ceiling behind her, accompanied by a string of incoherent letters. The accident had just served to remind her that she could text him, though. The next two shots were selfies of her and her friends at their table. Mai hated to admit it but they looked pretty good. Why was her drunk-self better at taking pictures than her sober self?

There was a chain of short texts after that.

**Mai** : hiiiiiiii

**Mai** : Narru i just want to talk to you

**Mai** : pleaaaasseee??.?

**Mai** : answer yuor pHONE

**Mai** : fine your a jerk anyway

**Mai** : im gonna make out wth yasu then

**Mai** : shit hes not here either

**Mai** : naru comeon i miss you

**Mai** : i missssss you

**Mai** : its important to be honest with ppl you kno

**Mai** : WHY DONT YOU IKE ME

**Mai** : Im nice? Im nicer than you anyway

**Mai** : is it becuse im not pretty enough?

**Mai** : i know im not gorges but i am cute okay so its not fair we cant allbe as pretty as you some of us hav to look like real peopl too

**Mai** : i can be pretty to

This was followed with the last pic. It looked like it had been taken in the club bathroom and featured Mai, completely flushed, grinning and winking at the camera in a suggestive pose. The timestamp said she had sent it at 4:36am. Her last message was nearly an hour after that, at 5:31am.

**Mai** : goodnight naru sweet dreems <3

Mai felt herself sink to her knees in the middle of the hallway. She stared at the messages. She stared at the photo. Her texts were riddled with spelling mistakes and typos- she wasn’t the best at English already, so why was she trying to spell while smashed?- and grew increasingly belligerent and needy as the night went on. She had actually asked him if she was pretty enough. And that last photo? The first three were friendly, even kind of cute to wake up to. But there was no misinterpreting that last one. Why was she still at the club that late? Why did no one take her phone away from her? Why did her friends let her send her crush- forget that, her  _ boss-  _ so many texts? How was she ever going to look him in the eye again?

“Are you alright?”

Mai felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped, startled. Her RA, James, who had been standing behind her, stepped back a bit.

“Woah, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He smiled reassuringly. Mai tried to smile back.

“No, I’m sorry, I uh… I went out with a few friends last night for her birthday, and I’m just checking out the damage now.”

James chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry, we’ve all been there. You were kind of, uh, whimpering? That’s why I was worried.”

Mai felt her face flush. Great, now she was embarrassing herself in person. “Oh, I’m sorry, I had no idea!”

“No, it’s fine! I just wanted to make sure you were feeling okay and not, like, having a panic attack or something.”

“Um, no, I don’t think so. I just saw all the stuff I sent my boss, so…”

James’ eyes widened in understanding. “Well, fuck.”

“Yeah.”

\- - - - -

When he woke in the morning, Oliver saw that Mai had called three more times in the night and left him a long string of text messages. He smirked to himself, wondering if he should even listen to all of them since they were almost certainly Mai apologizing profusely and begging to keep her position at SPR.  

He opened up the first voicemail and began to play it before his morning routine. Mai’s panicked tinny voice spilled out and he couldn’t help the small smile it brought to his face.

“Naru! Naru, I’m sorry! I’m so so sorry I didn’t mean to say ‘fuck you,’ you just make me so mad sometimes? I’m sorry, please pick up!”

There was a small beep as his phone transitioned to the next message.

“Okay, look, I know I was rude, but why can’t you pick up the phone? You’re always on me for being late, I don’t get it? Seriously, you can stand to be nicer sometimes. Why do you hate me so much? What did I do? I thought we were friends.”

Oliver frowned. Mai’s voice had turned to a whine at the end, and she sounded suspiciously close to tears. He checked the time stamps again. She was up until fairly early that morning. How much had she been drinking? It was definitely more than was good for her. The phone beeped again, launching into the final message.

“Alright, you know what? I’m done! I’m done with you, ya hear me? You’re a jerk and a know-it-all  and you have no manners and you act like a grumpy cat sometimes and you’re mean and I told you I had feelings for you and you accused me of being in love with your dead brother! What the fuck, Naru? That was so weird! I felt awful, and confused, and you just let me cry and I just don’t get it. Why do I like you? Do you know? Do you have any answers? Do you ever even think about me when I'm not making you tea, asshole?”

A muffled voice emerged from the background noise. “Mai, give me the phone-”

“No! It’s my phone.”

“Mai, stop, you’re wasted, just give me the phone.”

“I’m talking to someone.” Both voices seemed to move away from the speaker, like someone had pressed a hand over it.

“Give it!” There was a yelp that was definitely Mai, followed by some grunting and shuffling. Oliver assumed one of Mai’s drinking buddies had finally decided to step in and was attempting to wrestle the phone away from her. He stared at the phone for a minute, then decided he had no interest in hearing the rest. 

Oliver paused the message, hesitated, and then deleted it, followed by the other two. He wanted to tease Mai about her irresponsibility and silliness- she really was lucky he had no interest in firing her- but the contents of that last message… it was too much. Too personal. They didn’t talk about the lake. Not her confession or anything else. It was an unspoken agreement that allowed them to coexist in peace, but Mai had hit some kind of threshold last night and crossed more than the usual lines. Oliver had no intention of pushing her on it.

He got up to search out some breakfast and glanced back at the phone. He’d nearly forgotten that Mai had sent him several texts and pictures. His smirk finally returned. Now this he could tease her about.


End file.
